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The high-riding wagon is tipped to once again become ‘a core pillar of the Subaru model line-up’, after five years of slumping sales.
Subaru Australia is confident the all-new 2021 Subaru Outback wagon has the technology and market appeal to reverse the nameplate’s long-term sales decline, according to the brand’s general manager Blair Read.
Speaking to CarAdvice following the vehicle’s overnight launch, Mr Read said: “We see great opportunity [with the new 2021 Subaru Outback], and we see it becoming basically the flagship of the range.”
“With the technology, the specs, the features of this car, it is the best SUV that Subaru has made, so we have strong ambitions for it,” he continued. “I’m not a betting man, so it’s really hard to pick the market this year with everything else that’s going on, but we see it being a core pillar of the Subaru model line-up.”
Launched in 1996 and once fighting with the Forester to be Subaru’s best seller, by 2020 the Outback represented just 15 per cent of the brand’s total deliveries.
In contrast, during 2016 – the best sales year in the high-riding wagon’s history – Subaru delivered 12,207 examples of the Outback, representing more than one in four Subaru vehicles sold that year (47,018).
In 2017 the brand reported 11,340 examples as sold, and this figure dropped further in each consecutive year to date, to 10,378 in 2018, 7210 in 2019, and just 4828 examples in 2020.
For comparison, the Outback’s 33 per cent sales decline in 2020 compares to a 13.7 per cent slump for the overall Australian new-car market, and a 21.3 per cent decline in total Subaru sales in Australia.
The all-new 2021 Subaru Outback is on sale now, priced from $39,990 plus on-road costs. Read full pricing and specifications for the model by clicking here.
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